California Labor Code § 351 provides that all tips belong to the employees who earned them. Employers who take a portion of tips, require tip pooling with managers or supervisors, or use tips to offset wages are stealing from workers.
Common Forms of Tip Theft
Tip theft occurs when: the employer takes a percentage of tips as a ‘service charge’ that goes to the house rather than workers, managers or supervisors are included in tip pools, the employer uses tips to bring wages up to minimum wage (California prohibits tip credits), or the employer requires workers to tip out to back-of-house staff who don’t customarily receive tips.
Each worker’s individual tip theft claim can be substantial. A server who has contributed 2% of sales to a tip pool that includes managers over a three-year period may be owed thousands of dollars. The California Wage Theft Recovery System includes the calculation methodology and demand letter template specifically for tip theft claims.
The California Wage Theft Recovery System gives workers the exact tools and templates to document violations, calculate what they’re owed, and file the right claims — without paying an attorney to get started. Request your free evaluation here.
California Wage Theft Recovery System 
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